Law firm files 1,000 challenges to city property assessments

By Garett Sloane | gsloane@am-ny.com

March 28, 2008

And you thought accountants were busy this time of year. Try working at the Manhattan law firm that has filed appeals on behalf of 1,000 disgruntled property owners.

Indeed, this year has become a busy one at Marcus & Pollack after the city tweaked its property-assessment policies.

"The old method used income and expenses and produced more accurate results," Joel Marcus said. "[The new] method is easier to use but less accurate. That's unfair because the ideal is everybody pays their fair share."

Marcus' firm has filed about 1,000 petitions challenging the assessments. In fact, his firm also represents clients whose taxes went down under the new method. They want to lower retroactively their tax bills.

It seems like a contradiction, but Marcus argues that if the city considers the new method fair, then it should apply it to previous years.

"In cases where people have benefited from the [new method] we're going to take the position that the city can't be hypocritical," he said. "My ultimate goal is that as many as my clients as possible, pay lower taxes."

For most New Yorkers, the complexities of tax assessments are hard to grasp and terms like gross income multiplier are hard to say five times fast.

Mona Shyman, who lives in a Bayside co-op and is the vice president of the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives and Condominiums, has more than 25 years' experience challenging City Hall on how it taxes co-ops and condos. She still has a hard time understanding the city's rules.

She didn't know why, but this year she got two tax bills. The second one lowered her rate and she didn't question it.

"Certain things they do it and I'm happy they do it," she said. "Some things you just don't ask."

It turns out Shyman was one of many owners in the city whose 2008-09 bill had to be revised. The city is supposed to tax all apartments, co-ops and condos using the same formula. But when the first bills went out, co-ops and condos faced a higher rate than apartments.

That's illegal, and that's why Shyman saw her bill go down.